Fundamentals Are Killing The Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche came into last night’s game in a must-win situation. They had lost six of their last seven, falling fast in the standings. Colorado met with the last place Chicago Blackhawks in what should have been an easy win, but that was not the case. The Avalanche struggled at playing fundamental hockey.

I break down examples from each period of how they failed.  

First Period 

Basic hockey killed Colorado in the first period. As the Avalanche tried to gain possession in the neutral zone, the puck was poked out of the reach of forward Martin Kaut. As that happened, all of the Avalanche players had collapsed to the right side of the ice and started bunching. The worst part was that Cale Makar’s defensive partner went for a change and left the whole backend exposed (this was not Samuel Girard’s fault, for the Sammy G haters). 

The power play lacked structure and the entry for the Avalanche has become an issue. Once they do get into the offensive zone, they either over pass the puck or lose possession. The Avalanche need to work on getting the play down low towards the net. Instead, they are passing along the edges and work to have Nathan MacKinnon take most of the shots. 

Second Period 

The basics that hurt the Avalanche in the second period were defense. The team as a whole was hesitant to attack any of the Blackhawks players when they had the puck. Chicago was able to skate down the half boards and into the slot at will with no pressure. One of those plays led to a Andreas Athanasiou goal, as he skated down the right side in and right in front of goaltender Pavel Francouz and waited for him to bite. General rule on defense is to have the forward pinched to outside of the faceoff dot before the hash marks. This is not happening with Avalanche most of the time.

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Third Period

In the third period, during a Blackhawks goal, it became more obvious that defense was an issue. As the play developed down low, Chicago forward Taylor Raddysh started crashing down the middle of the slot. Colorado forward J.T. Compher was covering Raddysh but never stayed on his hip, allowing him to get to the back door. Compher was not able to put pressure on Raddysh in time. Consequently, this goal became the game-winning goal. 

Conclusion

The Colorado Avalanche won a Stanley Cup by sticking to the fundamentals. Now this season, with a ton of injuries on the roster, the Avalanche have drifted away from their game. Coach Jared Bednar said at the beginning of the season that concentrating on the small things is what won them games last year. It seems as though Bednar has let the team he leads get away from that. Once they start concentrating on fundamental hockey again, that is when they will win games. Unfortunately last night, the Avalanche let this one slip and lost, 3-2.